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Across the Pastor’s Desk by CHarles Alkula

It’s that time of year again. Time to celebrate bunnies, chocolate, chicks from the Bo and the start of another season of baseball.

There is spring cleaning to be done, graduations and weddings to attend and summer vacation plans to be made.

Oh, and there is also something that will get a lot of attention in most churches as well — the annual bringing of lilies to adorn the chancel area of the sanctuary.

One thing you’ll notice I didn’t mention in the list above is Easter. Like Christmas Eve/Day, Easter is no longer the worship festival it once was as other priorities have emerged to compete for the affections of too many Christians. Why is this?

What happened that the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord has come to this?

I would offer that a significant part of the challenge facing the celebration of Easter is that we live in a finite world. There is only so much time, money, energy and other resources to go around. Or so it would seem.

In this worldview, Easter becomes just another note on the calendar and one among many activities clamoring for our attention.

And yet, Christians are not called by a finite god to experience life as a zero-sum game. Our God is extravagant, creating a universe of endless possibilities, bestowing grace upon grace to each and every one who draws breath. We are not a people meant to be limited by anything in this life or in the life to come.

In a podcast interview for “Get Your Spirit in Shape,” noted United Methodist scholar Paul Chilcote said, “Death seems to be a final word in the life of every human being.

Seems to be, I say, a final word, because it isn’t. The final word is life, not death. The final word is resurrection. The final word is eternal life with God who loves us.”

Our faith, summed up in the expression “Jesus Christ is Lord,” is contained in the Christmas and Easter observances.

From the very beginning of the Christian movement, the message has been that God is with us both in life and in death.

As we gather for worship on Easter morning, many churches will sing “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and together celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and with it, the good news that life is stronger than death.

As believers who live and work in the world today, we add our voices to the songs of triumph of the resurrection and invite the world around us to share in the ever-present unfolding of life that is God’s offering to all through Jesus.

Charles Alkula is the director of spiritual care at Thorne Crest Senior Living Community.